1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 4? 



tries, and which always distinguish it from sand and 

 ooze, are of an enormous size. The leaves are four 

 feet long, and some of the stalks, though not thicker 

 than a man's thumb, above one hundred and twenty. 

 Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined some of 

 them, over which we sounded and had fourteen 

 fathom, which is eighty-four feet ; and, as they made 

 a very acute angle with the bottom, they were 

 thought to be at least one half longer : the foot- 

 stalks were swelled into an air vessel, and Mr. Banks 

 and Dr. Solander called this plant Fucus giganteus. 

 Upon the report of the master, I stood in with the 

 ship ; but not trusting implicitly to his intelligence, 

 I continued to sound, and found but four fathom 

 upon the first ledge that I went over; concluding, 

 therefore, that I could not anchor here without risk, 

 I determined to seek some port in the Streight, 

 where I might get on board such wood and water as 

 we wanted. 



Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, however, being very 

 desirous to go on shore, I sent a boat with them and 

 their people, while I kept plying as near as possible 

 with the ship. 



Having been on shore four hours, they returned 

 about nine in the evening, with above an hundred 

 different plants and flowers, all of them wholly un- 

 known to the botanists of Europe. They found the 

 country about the bay to be in general flat, the 

 bottom of it in particular was a plain covered with 

 grass, which might easily have been made into a 

 large quantity of hay ; they found also abundance 

 of good w^ood and water, and fowl in great plenty. 

 Among other things, of which nature has been 

 liberal in this place, is Winter's bark, Winteranea 

 aromatica ; which may easily be known by its broad 

 leaf, shaped like the laurel, of a light green colour 

 without, and inclining to blue within ; the bark is 

 easily stripped with a bone or a stick, and its virtues 

 are well known ; it may be used for culinary purposes 



